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Elimination - The Drive Is On...
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has proclaimed 2000 as the year in which leprosy would be eliminated. Although this has not yet happened there has been enormous progress towards this aim and it is worth highlighting some of the activity which has been reported to us.
As reported elsewhere there are an estimated 1.5 - 2.0 million undiagnosed cases in the world today and the sooner they are found and treated the less the personal tragedy from disfigurement and resultant social stigma.
Bangladesh
From Bangladesh we hear: "Dinajpur is an epidemic area and what is worse with strong stigma, rejection by the society. Now, after so many years of educational work, things are changing. We get cooperation from Government Medical Personnel and other influential persons; patients more easily come forward. Total number of patients is decreasing, still it is hard work to follow them. We go to look for them from village to village and almost house by house."
India
The Samaritan Sisters have taken elimination as the main work which they do from their base at Kalladikode in Kerala in southern India. The area has about 300,000 people but is hilly and not easily accessible and the people are very poor and underpriviledged. The Sisters conduct surveys through villages and schools to find new cases and create awareness but "health education is a more powerful weapon and its effects more permanent. We can entrust the support of the village leaders, members of the youth clubs, sports clubs, and other members of the woman organisations. To educate the mass slide shows, video programmes and health talks are arranged to educate the people. Posters are exhibited at all places of public importance."
In India the Government have adopted the Leprosy Eradication programme and actively promote it according to many reports we have received. St. Joseph's Leprosy Hospital in Tuticorin have conducted 6 medical camps, 20 health education camps, surveyed 146 schools and examined 92779 school children, detecting 77 new cases following Ministry of Health guidelines but among the statistics the following story demonstrates the problem more dramatically. "A few weeks ago we carried out a survey in the urban area in the morning. As we entered a house we found a mother who is giving a bath to a girl who is getting ready to go to school. It was a right moment to discover that this little girl is having leprosy. The mother showed us the patches on this girls leg. The whole family is totally ignorant about these patches. We get many cases in the urban area, both Leprosy and Tuberculosis."
Fr. Thomas Puthussery writes from the Social Service Centre, run by the Catholic Diocese of Eluru in Central India: "The main task of the centre is to educate the people about Leprosy as a disease. We are publishing widely about Leprosy. We dispel the wrong ideas among the people that leprosy cannot be cured. We also provide spiritual assistance and teach the need for acceptance."
And so the story continues in letter after letter: "...covered 30 schools with 13262 students and discovered 3 new cases... two skin camps were conducted and 4 new cases were detected....... The Government of Gujerat team is very active to remove the social stigma and to bring awareness among the people about the disease and to detect new cases..."
This article may seem heavily weighted towards India but this is only because, as noted elsewhere, there are far more leprosy patients in India than anywhere else and because we receive more reports from India. In fact the theme of elimination runs through most of the reports from all over the world.
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Directing you to the St Francis Leprosy Guild Website, thank you for your patience.
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